will provide for them and for you: verily the killing of them is a great sin' (khit'an kabiran). ¹

The commission of a crime dhanb, constitutes a person a sinner (khati). Thus, Jacob's sons say, 'O father, ask pardon for our sins (dhunubana), for we certainly have been sinners (khati'in).' ² And Potiphar says, 'O Joseph, leave this affair; and thou (O woman), ask pardon for thy crime (dhanb), for you are a guilty person (min al-khati'in)'. ³

Khati'at thus comes to be the general word descriptive of sin and khati the general word employed to express a sinner, and the two are used indiscriminately whether the wrong-doing be sayyiat or dhanb. Every sinner (khati) may not be one who has done an evil deed (sayyiat), or committed a crime (dhanb) but every one who has committed a crime (dhanb), or done an evil deed (sayyiat) is a sinner (khati).

We next turn to the word ithm, fault, injustice, crime. The primary idea of the word 'is to be sought in that of negligence, especially in going, in gait, whence athim, a slow-paced camel, faltering and weary.' ⁴

The Arabic word is used with practically the same meaning as that of the Hebrew word asham, and expresses to fail in duty, and thence to become guilty.

The various applications of the word stand out very clearly in the Qur'an. It is used to express fault or guilt in the attitude which one may take up towards another, without committing any overt act of wrongdoing, by entertaining unfounded suspicions or unworthy thoughts of another. Thus we see the following, 'O

believers, avoid frequent suspicion, for some suspicions are a crime (ithm).' ¹ Fault or guilt, however, of this kind naturally leads to the actual charge of wrong-doing against the person concerning whom the suspicions are entertained. The word may then be used to express the unfounded charge of wrong-doing brought against an innocent person. Thus it is used concerning the charge against 'Ayisha, 'To every man among them shall it be done according to the offence (ithm) he hath committed;' ² and again we find, 'If ye be desirous to exchange one wife for another, and have given one of them a talent; make no deduction from it. Would ye take it by slandering her, and with manifest wrong (ithman)?' ³

Wrong feelings towards another, and the thought expressed or hidden, that they have acted wrongly, readily leads to the desire to repay all the evil done, especially when it is supposed to have been done to oneself, or in violation of one's rights. The word then passes to express the action done to another in revenge or in requital for supposed injury or evil done by that person, but of which he is innocent. Thus it is said, 'Assist one another according to goodness and piety, but assist not one another in injustice and malice.' ⁴ And we find, 'Afterwards ye were they who slew one another, and ye drove out a part of your own people from their houses, ye lent help against them in injustice and hatred.' ⁵

But harm or wrong done to another may, be committed, not out of revenge, but from some other motive. The